Dyneslines

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Dante and Beatrice

Today the word "Beatrice" serves as a synonym for "muse," an individual who fosters creative achievement. In fact, Beatrice Portinari (born 1265), was a real person. Dante Alighieri records the effect she had over him in his searing memoir, La Vita Nuova, consulted over the centuries by those of us who have sought to understand the sudden flood of emotion that ensues from an early love, as unexpected as it is powerful.

Today it comes as a shock, perhaps, that when Dante first saw Beatrice she was not quite nine years old. Paedophilia? Certainly not, as there was no age discrepancy for the poet was then himself only nine years old. There were several subsequent sightings, until the paragon died at the age of 24. As an angelic being she guides the poet in the Purgatorio.

In life Dante never consummated his passion, nor did he aspire to. The narrative is in fact a legitimate variation on the medieval tradition of Courtly Love, where the lady remains, in most cases, inaccessible.

About Me

I like to consider myself a citizen of Cosmopolis, ranging widely across the humanities. I have traveled to 45 countries, and speak five languages. Out of self-interest, I am concerned with current affairs in my own country. Writing is important to me: I have published seventeen books (including edited volumes).
My beginning the blog coincided with my retirement. No longer muzzled, I felt, by the demands of being a salaried professor, I gave vent to my untrammeled opinions. Sometimes, perhaps, too much so--but it is my right, all the same. Here is an appropriate motto from La Fontaine: Est bien fou du cerveau qui prétend contenter tout le monde et son père. ("The Miller, His Son, and the Donkey"). For my work in linguistics see the revised (electronic) version of Homolexis at www.williamapercy.com/homolexis/index.php?title=Main_Page; for the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, see:
http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/BIB/EOH/index.htm. See also the electronic version of my 1987 book, Homosexuality: A Research Guide (/www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/BIB/ResGde/main.htm).